THE last week has flown by in the blink of an eye and it is hard to believe that Cheltenham has been and gone already! While we ended up with just the two runners, I was still up there every day hosting our marquee and it is a tiring week being up extra early to get all the work done and driving up and back each day, writes DAVID PIPE.

From my point of view, the marquee part of the week went very well and I hope all our guests enjoyed a good week.

Thanks goes to Matt Chapman for coming in and sharing his tips and banter – I know he is not everyone’s cup of tea but – love him or hate him – he is very knowledgeable and passionate about racing.

On the racing front, the Brits did better than I thought we might against the Irish with the overall standings 18-9 to the visitors. I have seen lots of statistics and views on the Cheltenham Festival in the last few days and feel many valid points have been made.

We knew the Irish, in particular Willie Mullins were going to be difficult to beat in most of the races and so it proved. At the moment, they have built up a dominance with the best horses and while I don’t see it changing in the immediate future, I am sure it will in time. We have seen it with top football teams throughout the last few decades but things do turn around eventually – I just hope owners stick with English trainers long enough for this to happen. Prize money in racing in general has to improve for this to happen I feel at the very least.

Runners Catch Up

WE started last week with a winner at Taunton courtesy of Lady Balko. She brought up her hat-trick of wins in style under Jack Tudor for her owners Micro Managers. She is likely to be out again later this week as the handicapper is going to raise her 12 pounds for that victory. She has a few entries but is most likely to run at Chepstow under her seven-pound penalty.

First Lord Du Cuet ran another creditable race to be fourth at Taunton and could be out again at Newbury this weekend. It was all a bit much for Jamaico and Fighter Allen at Cheltenham but they are two nice horses and will be seen in a better light next time.

We have a steady trickle of runners to look forward to in the coming days we have got entries at Newbury on Friday and over the weekend at Bangor, Newbury and Ascot so keep checking the Daily news for more updateson the stable runners.

We are in the process of setting up a new syndicate for a horse called KINGSTON QUEEN who we acquired from the Cheltenham sales last week. We are looking for eight people to join and Pete, my father-in-law has already sold seven shares so there is one space remaining so please do get in touch if you have any interest – [email protected] or ring 01884 840715.

She has won her only start to date in an Irish point and is a lovely four-yea-old grey mare with a bright future ahead. She was bought by Tom Malone the other day for £80,000. Pete does a great job in putting together these little groups and they have had so much fun with Lady Balko in recent weeks. It is a great way to be involved at Pond House so don’t delay and miss out on owning a part of Pete’s next adventure!